Tuesday 16 October 2018

9 Tips to Minimize Cart Abandonment in Your Checkout Process

Are you trying hard enough to handle your shopping cart abandonment?
The first step is to track and recognize how many customers are leaving items in their carts without finalizing the purchases.
If you are not addressing it, you are missing out on sales.
Take a moment to think about how you can improve the customer experience.
First, the consumer becomes aware of your products, services or brand.
Next, they have a want or need that sparks interest in something more specific.
Once the customer knows what they want, they consider the purchase.
Adding a product to their shopping cart qualifies as the consideration part of this conversion funnel process.
They are now just one step(click) away from finalizing the sale.
So, what is the problem?
If consumers are getting all the way to the shopping cart, you do not have a problem with your homepage or product service page.
What about your contact page or customer service information availability?
It is possible the customer does not feel comfortable finalizing the purchase based on the provided information about your business, reputation, warranty, or return policy.
But again, they have already made it to the checkout page with items in the cart.
So, the issue has to be in the final step of your conversion process.
In this post, we will show you some techniques that will minimize shopping cart abandonment on your platform and increase your conversion rates.

1. Recognize that customers are price sensitive

Your prices may be deterring the consumer from finalizing their purchase.
Apparently, you are trying to make money.
I am not telling you to start giving everything away.
You should be making a healthy profit on each transaction.
But unexpected prices are the first reason why consumers are abandoning shopping carts.
So, the initial price of your item might be okay.
But the added charges are turning customers away.



















Some examples of these extra charges may include:
  •    Processing fees
  •    Sales tax
  •    Shipping
  •    Any other hidden costs
Is there a way you can discharge some of these?
Here is an idea.
Maybe you can take on the shipping fee.
Rather than putting that burden on the customer, you can adjust the original prices of your products to account for the shipping charges.
The customer will still end up paying more, but it is not an unexpected charge.
You have got to find a middle ground and try to keep your prices competitive while still generating a nice profit.
You may be making slightly less money in each transaction, but it is worth it if you can increase the transaction rate.

2. Make sure your website and checkout process are secure

In the last five years, 46% of Americans were victims of credit card fraud.
That is an alarming number.
Americans are being the targets of nearly half of all the credit card breaches worldwide.
This is a real concern for consumers.
Your customers may have had a negative experience in the past, and that can make them hesitant about online shopping.
Therefore, the purchase process on your website needs to be secure.
You hold the responsibility for your customers’ credit card information.
Do not be the reason for their accounts getting hacked.
Take the proper security measures and place the corresponding badges on the checkout page, similar to the graphic above.
It makes the consumer feel more comfortable on the checkout page.
A secure website and checkout process need to be a priority for your e-commerce store.

3. Let your customers check out without creating a profile

You want customers to have an account with your company.
It is a great way to track their behavior and keep them informed of special offers and promotions.
However, you should not be forcing people to create a user profile to make a purchase.
Why?
  •    It is an extra step. People are in a hurry, and you want the procedure to be quick.
  •    They may have a fear of getting unwanted text messages, emails, or junk mail.
If your website does not have a guest checkout option, you are making a mistake.
There should be two clear options.
Returning users can easily sign into their accounts, and customers without an account can proceed without creating one.
This ensures you are not losing sales.
However, to complete the checkout process, the customer still needs to enter their information.
Which means you will have their name, location, email address, and other information.
Once the sale is finalized, you can entice them to create an account.
All they need to do is create a password.
You already have all the other information in your records, so they do not need to submit information twice.
Give the customer a reason to create an account.
What’s the customer getting in return?
  •    Option to track the order
  •    Exclusive discounts
But they should not be forced to create a profile just to make a purchase.
So, make sure that is optional.

4. Accept a broad range of payment options for the customer

What kind of payment options are you accepting?



















Visa only?
Do you not accept Discover cards?
I understand that particular credit card companies have higher processing fees than others.
Accepting transactions from PayPal or similar platforms could be even more costly.
By not accepting some payment methods, you could be turning customers away.
You might think everyone has one of the credit cards you accept, but that is not always the case.
Give the consumer lots of options because alternative payment methods are trending upward.
If you are accepting only 1 or 2 payment forms, it could be the reason for your shopping cart abandonment. Because some customers get to the checkout process only to discover you are not offering their preferred payment option.

5. The process needs to be mobile friendly

Your website should be mobile friendly, and the checkout procedure should be optimized for mobile devices.
Research shows 84 percent of smartphone users have experienced a problem completing a mobile transaction.
And 40 percent of users will go to your competitor after an unsatisfactory experience on your mobile site.
What do these numbers tell you?
People want to shop on their phones.
Almost 5.2 billion people have a mobile device across the world.
Of course, not all these people are your potential customers.
But a large part of them could be.
Do not alienate people from shopping on their mobile devices.
It is estimated that half of the e-commerce transactions happen on mobile platforms.
If getting to a desktop or laptop is the only way for your customers to shop, it could be hurting your sales.
Make sure your checkout procedure is optimized for mobile devices to decrease your shopping cart abandonment rates.

6. Avoid your competitors from stealing your customers

How unique is your service or product?
Chances are, you do not own the space outright.
You have plenty of competition.
It is not always easy to compete with the big players like Amazon or Walmart.
36% of shoppers abandon a shopping cart because they found a better price elsewhere.
If your prices are higher, that needs to be justified.
Make sure your service and quality are outstanding.
Your customer needs to understand this.
The website needs to load fast because 64% of smartphone users expect a site to load in 4 seconds or less.
And do not make the process too complicated.
We know that 25% of consumers abandon their shopping carts if the navigation is too complex.
They will go to your competitors instead, and therefore you should be aware of how your competitors are operating.

7. Send a reminder email if a cart is abandoned

So you may not be able to prevent everyone from abandoning their shopping carts.
Even if you reduce the abandonment rate, you will not get that number down to zero.
Where do you go from here?
Do not give up just because a customer abandoned their cart.
If you have their information, reach out and send them a reminder.
Sending an email, you can accomplish a few things:
  • remind the customer of their shopping
  • create a sense of urgency
  • offer an additional incentive
The reminder alone can be enough to get the customer to finalize their purchase.
But if it is not, it can create a sense of urgency by saying “high sell-out risk.”
It can also provide an extra incentive by offering a discount.
Earlier I mentioned that consumers are price sensitive.
They may abandon the cart for financial reasons.
Giving the customer a discount will show them you care.
That promotion may be enough reason for them to finish the checkout.

8. Use A/B testing to simplify your checkout process

How long does it take the consumers to purchase on your site?
Every extra click they have to make gives them a chance to second-guess their decision.
You can run an A/B test to see which checkout procedure is more successful.
If you have a long checkout system, you should definitely shorten the procedure significantly.
Run an A/B test by using your current system as the control group and a shorter version as the experimental group.
See if you there is a difference in your shopping cart abandonment rates between these two groups.

9. Create a sense of urgency

You can do FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out) on your checkout page to reduce cart abandonment.
Some customers are just browsing.



















New customers most likely will not buy anything on their first visit to your website.
But you can give them an additional incentive to finalize their purchases.
Create a sense of urgency.
“Limited quantity remaining.”
“Sale price expires at midnight.”
“8 other people are looking at this room right now.”
“14 people booked this flight in the last 24 hours.”
I am sure you have seen phrases like this before while browsing online.
Airlines and hotels do this all the time.
Act now, or miss out.
You can incorporate this psychological method into your checkout process to reduce cart abandonment.

Conclusion

The shopping cart abandonment is a problem for your e-commerce website.
But it is not too late to make changes to your checkout process to prevent future cart abandonment.
You can follow the advice above to keep your abandonment rates low while increasing your conversion rates and revenue.
Customers are price sensitive so do not hit them with any unexpected charges.
You should accept multiple forms of payment while also making sure the payment procedure is entirely secure. Customers will not shop on your website if they think their credit card information is at risk.
Do not force customers to create a profile to check out. Instead of that offer a user account as an option after they complete the process.
Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. Because if not, your customers can go to your competitors.
The checkout process has to be short. You can run an A/B test to play with different formats and options.
To avoid cart abandonment, create a sense of urgency: if the customer does not act now, they may not be able to get the exact product in the future.
Even if someone abandons their cart, it is not too late. Send them a reminder email about the product.
You can also offer a promotion or discount as an extra incentive to finalize the sale.

No comments:

Post a Comment